The plight of Latin America’s teachers

It’s no wonder that protesters in Brazil are holding signs reading “more education, less soccer,” or that there are constant teacher strikes in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Mexico — Latin American schoolteachers are among the most miserably paid in the world.

Last week, as protesters in Brazil complained about their country’s huge expenditures for hosting the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and held signs with slogans such as “Japan: take our soccer, give us your education,” a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment (OECD) showed that teachers in Latin America earn less, work longer hours and have less time to prepare their classes than their counterparts in other regions.

The report, entitled ‘Education at a Glance 2013,’ also shows that Finland and South Korea, which